New Ulm weekly review., 1887-12-14
THE COLLIER'S HUT ].

n II ttat Elk
.f stGrandpa!" Sylvia began, bending
aver to comb his hair with her fin
gers. ,|
His head rested where old heads
had been piliowed hundred years
before on the high back Of the old,
slender, green armchair.
1t was q weather worn old head.
The storm had swept the thatch from
its roof, except two tangled Wisps
that hang over the caves, one above
each ear. These The brushy locks,
OF course, and not the ears Sylvia
was industriously trying to curl.
They wouldn't curl, and Sylvia
didn't care; she did care very much,
as we shall see, about something else.
She lived in Cornwall am ong the
gray old Litchfeld hills, that stood
and, / think, still stand lin the north
resternmost Granny. OF Connecticut.
e.Well," he asked, pinching her,
and what does missy want out'n
Grandpa. 4 now?"
"WI,y, who said wanted anything?"
Sylvia replied, an eager quaver in her
voice. 'But I do. Mrs. Cotter was
a-talkin' to-day
tMost ginerally always kinder is, "
he interrupted.
t'Was a-talkin," continued Sylvia,
bout q family in P'keepsie that
want a cottage for The summer. Now
there's that hut up on skatikoke, very
near where you're chopin wood
En-! want to fix that up for emf"
Grandpa exclaimed. "Cool m airy
ike. n no malary, m as quiet at the
desert O. Sabary, NJ
No. Grampa." Sylvia slipped her
ssrpts around his neck and tied her
fingers in a chubby knot under his
chin. 'No, want you to rent our
house TO them, and let us camp out
an that hut IL
II want = kaow!' Grandpa exclaim-
4 ed. SO much ststonished, that he nod
s1ed right off to sleep.
When he .awoke, the warm, soft
knot OF fingers vas still under his chin,
sfnd the warm pressure Of lips on his
forehead.
II knew you 'would!'' said Sylvia.
tsKnew I would! Bless me! Who
I said would?'' he asked.
But it came to pass. Grandpa told
4.er to "get that notion out'n her
head. { but notions, when they got in
to her head, seemed like mice caught
IN a trap, to forget how to get out.
The next Tuesday morning Mr..
Marsh drove up, with Jennie and
Whitefoot hitched to the big wagon,
and into it went boxes and bundles,
and chairs, and Grandpa, and Tows-
er, the dog, and Sylvia, and Mouser,
4 the kitten. and on the mountain they
went for the summer.
They were poor and lived alone; she
4 was housekeeper, and maid -of-all-
work, sometimes making baskets to
sell.
He, an oaken-limbed man Of nearly
sixty earned their living by chop
sping wood for charco al. 's*
As for Sylvia her heart ran over
again and again in joyous tears that
the wind tried to dry with her loose
2 tresses M 81.
Atlast they came to the old collier
shut, standing on a ''pit" "a wide,
round shelf on the mountain side
where charcoal had once been burned.
When Mr.. Marsh had driven off.
Sylvia and her grandfather hustled
Il 1 about like two squirrels fitting up
# Eheir home. 5.l45fsi
Grandpa had reroofed.the hut with
fragrant hemlock boughs and earth.
y Henow fashioned two rude beds out
" Of poles stuck on crotches, and re-
@ placed the fireplace, hanging an old
cane in it. e,
Sylvia made the beds. swept and
brushed and tidied all day. a curtain
was hung in the corner for a ward
,robs. A box. turned on its side, serv-
ed when grandpa put a shelf in it
Cor q pantry and table.
When grandpa came in from chop
ping their tirewood, he found their
Gable covered with q coarse cloth, the
sbuttef dripping over the nicely
drowned edges Of q pile Of toast, be-
side it plate of fakes Of cold lamb,
while the teapot, sent out it's sweet
& breath from he hearth.
Supper over. Sylvia took soap and
tea-towel to the edge Of the brook that
tumbled by their new home, not
twenty feet away. Grandpa brought
the dishes to the wide, smooth rock
and Sylvia washed them in the run
ming water. When they we're wiped
ahe hung the towel on the bushes, and
;s went to feed Mouser.
She felt queer to go to sleep In that
wild nook, and the .'hoot hoot 8 o
an,owI overhead made her get up an6
sit BY the embers on the hearth.
When the owl flew away. and sh,
could hear only the spiashing Of th,
I'll brook, she crept back to bed agair
B and slept till Niouser woke her by try
& .sing TO burrow under her neck.
Grapdpa vas gone, but soon return